180 
jVUsrrUanra. 
A Hint to Veterinary Medical Witnesses. 
[Extracted from one of Mr. Amos’s Lectures on Medical Jurisprudence 
at the University of London.] 
I shall have occasion frequently, in the course of my lectures, 
to advert to the subject of the demeanor of medical witnesses. 
The hour will just allow of me, this evening*, adverting to one 
piece of advice; which is, in the witness-box, to drop as much as 
possible the language which is known only to scientific men, and 
to adopt that which is in popular use. If you have occasion to 
speak of a person fainting, do not say, as I have heard it said, 
that you found the patient in a state of syncope ; and you must 
not expect a court of justice to understand you if you talk of a 
person being comatose , or of the appearance of his stomach after 
death being highly vascular , or of your having discovered poison¬ 
ous ingredients in his intestines by means of a delicate test. The 
judge and counsel are, generally, very shallow men of science, 
and it is a great advantage for them to raise a laugh at persons 
whom they would represent to be using hard names for common 
things. Veterinary surgeons are a great game for counsel; as 
I remember, in particular, a veterinary surgeon who, when cross- 
examined by Sergeant Vaughan, was so unfortunate as to make 
use of the term u suspensory ligament,” which the sergeant in-' 
terpreted “ a hangman’s noose .”—Medical Gazette . 
The Royal Blacksmith. » 
[Seward's Anecdotes, vol. iv, p. 3.] 
Charles the Ninth of France built a forge near his palace at 
Fontainbleau, “ where,” saysBrantome, “ I have seen him ham¬ 
mer out guns, horse-shoes, and other things in iron, as well as 
the strongest and most expert smith.” 
Erratum. 
In Mr. Turner’s Paper on Shoeing, p. 130, line 30, for “uniting” read “limiting.” 
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